Chapter One: How BookTok turned reading into an aesthetic

By Ivy Kleinman

Edited by Anna Kate Mereness

@thatssoemelia on Pinterest

You know the image. A candle burns on the nightstand, a paperback sits covered in pastel sticky tabs, and a matching tote bag is somewhere nearby. Welcome to the reading girlie era, and BookTok is its home base.

I’ll admit it: I fit the description. Romance fantasy is my lane,  A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Fourth Wing are two of my all-time favorites. Not long ago, reading was something you did quietly, if you did it at all. Now it comes with a look, a vocabulary and a whole community of people filming themselves in front of their bookshelves.

So here’s what I keep wondering: Is BookTok actually getting people to read, or just teaching us how to look like we do?

I think it’s doing both, and honestly, that’s fine. Tuva Haglund, a literary studies researcher at Uppsala University, says some studies have linked BookTok to a rise in young people’s interest in reading, and that the app gives young readers role models. That tracks with my experience. Seeing someone your age get genuinely excited about a book makes reading feel less like homework and more like something you’d choose to do. Passing along recommendations is how most of us found our favorite books anyway. BookTok just moved the group chat online. 

It does come with a few side effects. Everyone ends up with the same stack, and my own bookshelf is proof. Dragons, enemies-to-lovers and a love interest with a tragic backstory are not exactly rare on my For-You page. The tabs and the tote bags can also start to feel like part of the assignment, like you need the full setup before you’re allowed to call yourself a reader.

But I’d rather have that than the alternative. If a candle and a color-coded tab system gets someone to open a book they otherwise wouldn’t, I’m not going to complain. A book is a book, and a good one is worth getting hyped about, even if the internet made it look cute first.

The tote bag is optional. The next chapter, hopefully, is not.